Game consoles have become more popular than ever, with recent offerings such as the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS opening their popularity to an even wider audience. However, even the most popular consoles experienced reports of faults common to many users, and it can be useful to be aware of some of the most frequent ones if this affects your console.<br><br>

Probably the most high profile console problem to occur so far has been the `red ring of death` issue with the Xbox 360, which was widely reported in the general media concerning images freezing up, game play stopping, or disc read errors, followed by three of the front circular lights on their console turning red, indicating a serious hardware failure. It is worth noting that there are other problems that are displayed by four red lights, so check your manual, but a professional repair engineer will be able to fix the problem easily, as it has been attributed to overheating caused by the design of early consoles. With the PlayStation 3, some customers have reported hard drive failures, whereby a yellow light is shown on the front of the console, followed by a flashing red light which stays until the power button is pressed, rendering the console unusable (in a similar way to the `red ring of death`, sometimes referred to as the `yellow light of death`).<br><br>

The Nintendo Wii has experienced a lower degree of serious issues, but problems have still been widely reported. The first System Software update caused some early units to become completely unusable and some systems may have difficulty reading the high-density software on the newer releases due to a contaminated laser lens. Both of these problems would have to be fixed by an independent engineer if out of the warranty period (or if Nintendo refuse to help). With the PSP (PlayStation Portable) and Nintendo DS, most problems have centred on the fact the devices are handheld and portable. Both consoles are sensitive to water damage, especially as the DS users a sensitive touch-screen and the PSP uses a moving parts drive for its UMD discs. These repairs, as well as battery issues or impact damage (where the console has been dropped one too many times by an overactive user) can often be fixed relatively cheaply and easily.

It is important to decide <a href="http://www.crowdstorm.co.uk/pc_and_video_games/c/2/">what video games</a> repairer to use, by looking at the range of services they offer. Many problems can be fixed at home with the right information, and a trustworthy repairer will usually tell you how to fix it yourself if possible, at a cheaper fee than sending it to them (while if you do need to send it to them, check what the arrangements for doing this will be – some repairers will even collect).